Panel: Unfinished Revolutions

Saturday, October 1, 11:00 am - O'Connor Auditorium

The Quest for Rights in a Turbulent Region

Protests in Egypt's Tahrir Square exemplify recent anti-autocratic uprisings in the Middle East

Are we witnessing the end of the age of the Arab autocratic leaders in the Middle East? What are the implications of the quest for fundamental political reforms for the peoples of the Middle East? How do the ever-changing developments in the region impact regional security? In light of the events in Bahrain, Egypt, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Yemen, the International Security Studies Program will be conducting this panel discussion on Saturday, October 1, 2011 11:00 am – 12:45 pm in O’Connor Auditorium. (photo credit)

Moderator: Dr. John Davis, Director International Security Studies Program at Trinity and author of Terrorism in Africa: The Evolving Front in the War on Terror

Speaker on Libya

Mohamed El-Khawas. Dr. El-Khawas is a professor of History and Political Science in the Department of Urban Affairs and Social Sciences at the University of the District of Columbia, Washington, D.C. He has published numerous articles, chapters, and monographs both in the United States and abroad. His books include Qaddafi: His Ideology in Theory and Practice, American Aid to Israel: Nature and Impact, Democracy, Diamonds and Oil: Politics in Today’s Africa, Mozambique in the Twentieth Century, The Kissinger Study of Southern Africa,and American—Southern African Relations.

Speaker on Egypt

Marie Milward is a new PhD in Political Science and International Affairs from the University of Georgia and an Assistant Professor of International Affairs at Trinity Washington University. In addition to her academic credentials and teaching experience, she has completed field work in elections observation in both the Congo and the Ivory Coast. She currently teaches international affairs at Trinity.

Speaker on Gender Rights in the Region of Change

Shadi Mokhtari.

Dr. Shadi Mokhtari is an Assistant Professor at the School of International Service at American University where she teaches courses on human rights, political Islam and the Middle East, including a course on the current wave of Protest and Change in the Middle East.

Dr. Mokhtari has an extensive background in human rights and women’s rights issues, particularly in the Middle East and Muslim World. Her research has focused on human rights trends and discourses in the Middle East, US-Middle Eastern dynamics particularly in the Post-9/11 context, Islamic Feminism in Iran, the treatment of Islamic family law in Canada, Islamist discourses on human rights and theories of compliance with international law.

She is the author of After Abu Ghraib: Exploring Human Rights in America and the Middle East (Cambridge, 2009), which was selected as the co-winner of the 2010 American Political Science Association Human Rights Section Best Book Award and the author of numerous scholarly articles. In 2006, she was selected as a “New Voices” Panelist by the American Society of International Law and was awarded an honorable mention for the John Peter Humphreys Fellowship from the Canadian Council on International Law.

Dr. Wasif has taught at the American University in Central Asia, the International Ataturk Alatoo University in Kyrgyzstan, University of Karachi in Pakistan and Georgetown University in Washington DC. He currently teaches at the Trinity University and University of Maryland Baltimore County.

Speaker on Syria

Ali Ahmed is the founder and director of The Gulf Institute. He is a Saudi scholar and expert on Saudi political affairs including: terrorism, Islamic movements, Wahhabi Islam, Saudi political history, Saudi-American relations, and the al-Saud family history. As a journalist he has exposed major news stories, such as the Pentagon’s botched translation of the 9/11 Bin Laden tape and the video of Daniel Pearl’s murder. He has authored reports on Saudi Arabia regarding religious freedom, torture, press freedom, and religious curriculum. A frequent consultant to major world media outlets including CBS News, CNN, PBS, Fox News, Washington Post, and Associated Press. Al-Ahmed has been quoted in the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, the Boston Globe and other newspapers in several languages.

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